Unknown PNG Airstrips?
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Ozexpat. It was Erume. It was often closed, but I can assure you Jean Martin was bushknifed to death there. I seem to remember they gave us special dispensation to land the 'riot squad' there to investigate.
I think you might be right about the photo possibly being the 'bottom pub'- known correctly as the Moresby Hotel. It was torched . I remember as a child going there in the 60's- It was THE place to go. In the 80's it was just another boi-bar. My other guess is maybe the TAA Mess in Lae, which was apparently a legendary place in the 60's. Come to think of it perhaps it is even the Cecil Hotel, on the water near Lae, which was torched by our hosts in the late 60?s.
There was also the real popular expat hangout at '17 Mile' on the Laloki river, near Moresby, can't remember the name but it too was torched by sooty. Run by Graham Davies of Car Club, and Friday night gambling nights at his den, fame. Out of the ashes of this rose the 'Phoenix Bar', which I believe still exists today. Like the Dero, it too suffered a bloodbath with guns and bushknives in the late 80's.
Nuf reminiscing.......taim bilong masta.
I think you might be right about the photo possibly being the 'bottom pub'- known correctly as the Moresby Hotel. It was torched . I remember as a child going there in the 60's- It was THE place to go. In the 80's it was just another boi-bar. My other guess is maybe the TAA Mess in Lae, which was apparently a legendary place in the 60's. Come to think of it perhaps it is even the Cecil Hotel, on the water near Lae, which was torched by our hosts in the late 60?s.
There was also the real popular expat hangout at '17 Mile' on the Laloki river, near Moresby, can't remember the name but it too was torched by sooty. Run by Graham Davies of Car Club, and Friday night gambling nights at his den, fame. Out of the ashes of this rose the 'Phoenix Bar', which I believe still exists today. Like the Dero, it too suffered a bloodbath with guns and bushknives in the late 80's.
Nuf reminiscing.......taim bilong masta.
PPRuNeaholic
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Ivan... ah yes, Erume - 6400 ft elevation, a luxurious 
480 metres long, RWYs 01/19. It was said that, at one time, an aircraft suffered engine failure after take-off so the pilot coolly glided down the valley and landed at Tapini. Dunno how true that was tho...
I remember the Moresby Hotel but, as yo correctly point out, it wasn't the place for "us" in the 80s. Remember when it got the "kukim pinis" treatment too. A most successful fire, if me memory serves...
Went to a few of those gambling nites at the Davies mansion. Geez, here were some VERY serious gamblers there! Also recall how fast the place would transform after the customary 15-minute warning phone call about an impending raid! Ahhhh, yep, those were the days!
480 metres long, RWYs 01/19. It was said that, at one time, an aircraft suffered engine failure after take-off so the pilot coolly glided down the valley and landed at Tapini. Dunno how true that was tho... I remember the Moresby Hotel but, as yo correctly point out, it wasn't the place for "us" in the 80s. Remember when it got the "kukim pinis" treatment too. A most successful fire, if me memory serves...
Went to a few of those gambling nites at the Davies mansion. Geez, here were some VERY serious gamblers there! Also recall how fast the place would transform after the customary 15-minute warning phone call about an impending raid! Ahhhh, yep, those were the days!
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Oze ... speaking of the good old days, would any of the guys on here who maybe flew in PNG in the 60's and 70's have any pictures of Wau around that time. We always used to hear stories of the good old days when some of the larger Aus airlines(TAA and Qantas??) used to go in there all the time, even to the extent of night stopping crews (including the female cabin crew). I wonder what sort of aircraft were they using, I was told DC3's, if this was so?
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Alistair ... not Qantas, perhaps Ansett as Mandated, but there will be others who'll know for sure. I'm pretty sure there was a fair bit on Wau in the Balus series of books by James Sinclair but my collection is safely stored in Cairns. 
Blokes like Sharpie and Veg may have actual memories of this.
Blokes like Sharpie and Veg may have actual memories of this.
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Ivan
Boi you're getting close!
This is interesting it confirms to me that a lot of taim bilong masta balus drivers DONT proon
Boi you're getting close!
I think you might be right about the photo possibly being the 'bottom pub'- known correctly as the Moresby Hotel. It was torched . I remember as a child going there in the 60's- It was THE place to go. In the 80's it was just another boi-bar. My other guess is maybe the TAA Mess in Lae, which was apparently a legendary place in the 60's. Come to think of it perhaps it is even the Cecil Hotel, on the water near Lae, which was torched by our hosts in the late 60?s.
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Alister
Wau was serviced in the early 70's by M acair out of Lae with Baron and 402 with Pilatus turbo porter doing Aseki Wau coffee shuttles.They did have a pilot based there and I think Talair continued this set up.
Before that I'm sure Mandated flew in there in DC3 Twotters and probably P166.
There was a complete B-17 super fortress lying on the edge of the ranges easily seen after T/O out of Wau.
It will of course be gone now.
Wau was serviced in the early 70's by M acair out of Lae with Baron and 402 with Pilatus turbo porter doing Aseki Wau coffee shuttles.They did have a pilot based there and I think Talair continued this set up.
Before that I'm sure Mandated flew in there in DC3 Twotters and probably P166.
There was a complete B-17 super fortress lying on the edge of the ranges easily seen after T/O out of Wau.
It will of course be gone now.
Haven't keep up with the thread the past week or so.
However, as something of a PNG Barologist I've been in that bar but I'm reasonably sure the Bar Picture is not the top pub (Papuan Hotel) nor the bottom pub (Moresby Hotel). Also don't think it's the Goroka Dero.
It may be in Lae (as someone suggested) or Madang?
Either way it's bloody old with a Silver Belly behind the bar!
However, as something of a PNG Barologist I've been in that bar but I'm reasonably sure the Bar Picture is not the top pub (Papuan Hotel) nor the bottom pub (Moresby Hotel). Also don't think it's the Goroka Dero.
It may be in Lae (as someone suggested) or Madang?
Either way it's bloody old with a Silver Belly behind the bar!
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Vege , you mean the B-17 in the Kunai(sp?) grass with the broken back? Still there as of a few years ago... from the air she looks like you could almost fly her away.
Does anyone know the story proper on how she got there? I had heard that they had lost an engine and were being chased and strafed by Zeros, and so parked her there on purpose as it was their best chance.
Can anyone confirm on correct this?
Does anyone know the story proper on how she got there? I had heard that they had lost an engine and were being chased and strafed by Zeros, and so parked her there on purpose as it was their best chance.
Can anyone confirm on correct this?
Grandpa Aerotart
Yup the B17 is still there.....or was in 1999.......a Captain I was flying with on the F28 was curious to have a look and early one morning coming out of Nadzab with only trolleytarts on board was our chance.........lotta fun requesting clearance from Nadzab via the Wampit, not above 10000'......in an F28 We had a good look before loosing the Speys and climbng back to a more seemly altitude for the rest of the trip to POM.
While based in Wau on the Otter 10 years before I was dropped over there by the resident Pacific Helicopters pilot and spent an interesting hour or so climbing over the old girl.......she was well stripped but still some ammo lying around in the Kunai grass.
The story I had heard was that they had been hit over Rabaul and coming back had become lost in bad weather. In the dawn light they ended up over a mountain valley which they recognised as Wau but in those days Wau was being contested for by the Japs and they weren't certain who currently owned it. Wau never fell to the Japs but they were not to know that at the time.
Rather than land on the airstrip, and possibly straight into a beheading scenario, they put it down where it is, just on the Wau side of the Black Cat Gap. Brilliant piece of flying to get it down with so 'little' damage in that spot. I heard that the crew were rescued by Aussies from Wau and walked out via the Bulldog Track over the mountains south to Bulldog strip and were then flown to POM.
More than once, whilst coming back from POM in the Otter on the afternoon RPT, and DRing through TS (no GPS in those days), I spotted a glint off bare metal and knew I was over the right valley!
One trip I had a United Airlines 747 Captain who was holidaying in PNG ask for the co-pilot seat. He was your classic silver haired 'Skipper' and was probably 50 odd.
It was a really bleak day, even along the coast heading NW from Pom, and I finally reached a spot NW of Kubuna where I could take up a heading and punch through to the Wau valley at 13500'. Now my erstwhile companion is probably used to keeping a LONG WAY from towering CBs period.......let alone in a leaking old -200 Twotter
To say he was blown away by DRing for 30 minutes through CBs, orbiting down a bit between layers and spotting a B17 glinting in what little sunlight was making it into the Wau Valley that afternoon, deciding we're in the right valley, and then orbiting right down into the valley in very marginal conditions before landing on a 12% grass airstrip would be a gross understatement.
He got out, shook my hand and said "Whatever they pay you it's not enough!!!"
Bloody right too
He was staying down at Bulolo at the Pine lodge so I scooped him up on my way past the next day and took him for a run around Heweini, Kiantiba, Kanobea, Kimina etc......it was one of those glorious mornings where you couldn't be paid enough to stop doing this
Chuck.
We had a good look before loosing the Speys and climbng back to a more seemly altitude for the rest of the trip to POM.While based in Wau on the Otter 10 years before I was dropped over there by the resident Pacific Helicopters pilot and spent an interesting hour or so climbing over the old girl.......she was well stripped but still some ammo lying around in the Kunai grass.
The story I had heard was that they had been hit over Rabaul and coming back had become lost in bad weather. In the dawn light they ended up over a mountain valley which they recognised as Wau but in those days Wau was being contested for by the Japs and they weren't certain who currently owned it. Wau never fell to the Japs but they were not to know that at the time.
Rather than land on the airstrip, and possibly straight into a beheading scenario, they put it down where it is, just on the Wau side of the Black Cat Gap. Brilliant piece of flying to get it down with so 'little' damage in that spot. I heard that the crew were rescued by Aussies from Wau and walked out via the Bulldog Track over the mountains south to Bulldog strip and were then flown to POM.
More than once, whilst coming back from POM in the Otter on the afternoon RPT, and DRing through TS (no GPS in those days), I spotted a glint off bare metal and knew I was over the right valley!
One trip I had a United Airlines 747 Captain who was holidaying in PNG ask for the co-pilot seat. He was your classic silver haired 'Skipper' and was probably 50 odd.
It was a really bleak day, even along the coast heading NW from Pom, and I finally reached a spot NW of Kubuna where I could take up a heading and punch through to the Wau valley at 13500'. Now my erstwhile companion is probably used to keeping a LONG WAY from towering CBs period.......let alone in a leaking old -200 Twotter
To say he was blown away by DRing for 30 minutes through CBs, orbiting down a bit between layers and spotting a B17 glinting in what little sunlight was making it into the Wau Valley that afternoon, deciding we're in the right valley, and then orbiting right down into the valley in very marginal conditions before landing on a 12% grass airstrip would be a gross understatement.
He got out, shook my hand and said "Whatever they pay you it's not enough!!!"
Bloody right too
He was staying down at Bulolo at the Pine lodge so I scooped him up on my way past the next day and took him for a run around Heweini, Kiantiba, Kanobea, Kimina etc......it was one of those glorious mornings where you couldn't be paid enough to stop doing this
Chuck.
Last edited by Chimbu chuckles; 29th Apr 2002 at 07:19.
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Strewth Chuck you know what the septics will pay for a B-17 like that?
More than your average polli gets in kick backs for sure.
Maybe the dopey buggahs in POM dont know its there?
Yep well remember Lae- Wau -Pom run.The LSA was 11110' wasnt it?Bumping along in a little Baron,no oxygen no auto pilot not much else working either.Silverbelly pax all karked from lack of oxy.
Them was the days mate.
More than your average polli gets in kick backs for sure.
Maybe the dopey buggahs in POM dont know its there?
Yep well remember Lae- Wau -Pom run.The LSA was 11110' wasnt it?Bumping along in a little Baron,no oxygen no auto pilot not much else working either.Silverbelly pax all karked from lack of oxy.
Them was the days mate.
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C'mon Vege. The suspense is killing us.
Where is that bar? The Boroko Hotel. Lae Aero Club. Qantas Mess. That pub that used to front onto the POM harbour where the present BP's building is?
Ol spakman long taim bilong masta i stap wea? Ol i dai pinis, o ol i no save wokim computa?
Where is that bar? The Boroko Hotel. Lae Aero Club. Qantas Mess. That pub that used to front onto the POM harbour where the present BP's building is?
Ol spakman long taim bilong masta i stap wea? Ol i dai pinis, o ol i no save wokim computa?
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B17 near Wau
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Ivan
Sir one of your answers is correct.
Which one are you going to lock in?
Would you like to call a friend?
Some more slides they about stuffed and didnt scan too good all from 1970-1
Ok wheres this?
airstrip
Sharpies PieVan
Where is it parked?
Buurrpp!!
That Bar again
Sir one of your answers is correct.
Which one are you going to lock in?
Would you like to call a friend?
Some more slides they about stuffed and didnt scan too good all from 1970-1
Ok wheres this?
airstrip
Sharpies PieVan
Where is it parked?
Buurrpp!!
That Bar again
Last edited by Capt Vegemite; 29th Apr 2002 at 07:11.
Grandpa Aerotart
Well it seems like the story I was told years ago was 1/2 right.
Vege if you think that B17 is speccy you should see the one in the swamp behind Wanagela!
She is completely intact as she was belly landed in a Kunai swamp with only a few feet of fresh water and very long grass. It is known that she was one of the B17s that arrived in the middle of the Pearl Harbour attack.......the ones that tricked the radar operators......the yanks know about the aircraft and would KILL to get hold of her but I think sooty has stopped them to date.
Then there is;
3 Aircobras on Woodlark Is. Sitting brand new in their wooden crates when the war ended and everybody 'just left'. The last time I saw them they were sitting in a neat row with their wings in a neat pile nearby........covered in moss etc, the wood having long ago succumbed to the tropics.
1 P38 in the grass at Terapo.
Several P38s sitting on the plains of the Western Province between Daru and Bensbach. When the expat chap who owned Bensbach Wildlife Lodge first went out there in the 60s you could've damn near filled em with fuel, jumped started them and flown away. They landed out there lost on a ferry flight from Townsville to Moresby.......suffering only slight damage when they hit a few small bushes etc. The ones I've seen(from VERY low altitude are sitting on their wheels!!!!!!) Then of course those FARKING VANDALS from the Oz Army went out there in the 70s and blew the front of them off to 'de-arm' them.
The Zero on the pylon at Kieta.......probably shot full of holes by the BRA by now.
Numerous Jap aircraft in the grass beside strips in the Islands like Jac Bay, Gasmata etc etc. Some still have the red ball symbol under the wings where the sun hasn't worn it off completely!
The intact B25J and Lockheed Ventura on the old strip near Talasea. Have you seen the breach loading artillery piece that's fitted to it?
The 2 Val dive bomber sitting in the trees next to Hoskins.
The B25 and P47 at Girua (now gone to Oz) but also the 2 P40 fuselages in the grass off the eastern end and the B24 fuselage a couple of miles away at one of the old wartime strips.
I wonder what happened to the Betty bomber and the Zero in the trees next to Rabaul? Probably wrecked in the eruptions.
The C47 with the 'Stars and Bars' still visible from the air that sits on the mountain top behind Dorobisoro (east of Pom).
Then there's the underwater ones that are still intact and fully armed that I dived;
B25 Madang.
A20 off POM
P47 off Pom
P38 Milne Bay
B17 (Blackjack) off Cape Vogel
Zero near Kokopo
Zero near Tokua (visible in 10 feet of water off the Rabaul end of the runway. Taught my daughter, then 5, to snorkel on it)
'Pete' Biplane/seaplane off Nonga. (very pretty dive)
Zero in the water off the jetty at Deboyne Is (never dived it but have seen it from air)
With 99% of the WW2 wrecks having been rescued or smelted in the 50s and 60s imagine what it must have been like back at the end of the War
Chuck.
Vege if you think that B17 is speccy you should see the one in the swamp behind Wanagela!
She is completely intact as she was belly landed in a Kunai swamp with only a few feet of fresh water and very long grass. It is known that she was one of the B17s that arrived in the middle of the Pearl Harbour attack.......the ones that tricked the radar operators......the yanks know about the aircraft and would KILL to get hold of her but I think sooty has stopped them to date.
Then there is;
3 Aircobras on Woodlark Is. Sitting brand new in their wooden crates when the war ended and everybody 'just left'. The last time I saw them they were sitting in a neat row with their wings in a neat pile nearby........covered in moss etc, the wood having long ago succumbed to the tropics.
1 P38 in the grass at Terapo.
Several P38s sitting on the plains of the Western Province between Daru and Bensbach. When the expat chap who owned Bensbach Wildlife Lodge first went out there in the 60s you could've damn near filled em with fuel, jumped started them and flown away. They landed out there lost on a ferry flight from Townsville to Moresby.......suffering only slight damage when they hit a few small bushes etc. The ones I've seen(from VERY low altitude
are sitting on their wheels!!!!!!) Then of course those FARKING VANDALS from the Oz Army went out there in the 70s and blew the front of them off to 'de-arm' them.The Zero on the pylon at Kieta.......probably shot full of holes by the BRA by now.
Numerous Jap aircraft in the grass beside strips in the Islands like Jac Bay, Gasmata etc etc. Some still have the red ball symbol under the wings where the sun hasn't worn it off completely!
The intact B25J and Lockheed Ventura on the old strip near Talasea. Have you seen the breach loading artillery piece that's fitted to it?
The 2 Val dive bomber sitting in the trees next to Hoskins.
The B25 and P47 at Girua (now gone to Oz) but also the 2 P40 fuselages in the grass off the eastern end and the B24 fuselage a couple of miles away at one of the old wartime strips.
I wonder what happened to the Betty bomber and the Zero in the trees next to Rabaul? Probably wrecked in the eruptions.
The C47 with the 'Stars and Bars' still visible from the air that sits on the mountain top behind Dorobisoro (east of Pom).
Then there's the underwater ones that are still intact and fully armed that I dived;
B25 Madang.
A20 off POM
P47 off Pom
P38 Milne Bay
B17 (Blackjack) off Cape Vogel
Zero near Kokopo
Zero near Tokua (visible in 10 feet of water off the Rabaul end of the runway. Taught my daughter, then 5, to snorkel on it)
'Pete' Biplane/seaplane off Nonga. (very pretty dive)
Zero in the water off the jetty at Deboyne Is (never dived it but have seen it from air)
With 99% of the WW2 wrecks having been rescued or smelted in the 50s and 60s imagine what it must have been like back at the end of the War
Chuck.
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Capt Veg,
Can't help with #'s 2&3, but that herring-bone drain brings back shuddering memories of Keglsugl; a candidate for the highest commercial airstrip in Australiasia. Bit hard to pick from the slide.
I have a few with more contrast, how did you manage to scan them?
G'day
Can't help with #'s 2&3, but that herring-bone drain brings back shuddering memories of Keglsugl; a candidate for the highest commercial airstrip in Australiasia. Bit hard to pick from the slide.
I have a few with more contrast, how did you manage to scan them?
G'day
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Does anybody have any photos of Tabibuga, near the Kimmel Gap. outa Hagen. Is it still open?
I remember going into there back in the 70's in a M@ckair Islander(as a passenger). the strip was wet and the Islander had a castering nosewheel. It made for a very interesting experience.
I remember going into there back in the 70's in a M@ckair Islander(as a passenger). the strip was wet and the Islander had a castering nosewheel. It made for a very interesting experience.
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Veg... dunno about the other two yet but the pievan is parked at Mendi... damn! Just saw the posts that have been added while I was reading Chuck's post on wrecks and then writing this. Dammit... beaten to the punch again...